ADL Denounces ‘Offensive’ Holocaust Comparison by Head of Family Research Council

New York, NY, June 10, 2014 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today reacted to an “offensive and inappropriate” Holocaust comparison by Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who in a recent discussion likened a judicial decision regarding a baker’s refusal to make a wedding cake for two gay men to Nazi concentration camps and the boxcars that Germany used to carry prisoners to death camps across Europe.

In reacting to a judge’s finding that the baker unlawfully discriminated against gay customers, Perkins reportedly stated that “I’m beginning to think, are re-education camps next? When are they going to start rolling out the boxcars to start hauling off Christians?”

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

Tony Perkins’ invocation of the Holocaust in his statement referring to a judge’s finding that a baker unlawfully discriminated against gay customers is offensive and inappropriate.

There is no comparison between contemporary American political issues and the actions of Hitler’s regime during the Holocaust. Such inappropriate analogies only serve to trivialize the Holocaust and are deeply offensive to Jews and other survivors, as well as those Americans who fought valiantly against the Nazis in World War II.

We urge Perkins to apologize and to refrain from using Holocaust imagery to make his point.

ADL is the world’s leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of anti-Semitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education, and fighting hate online, ADL is the first call when acts of anti-Semitism occur. ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate.